Laird station

Laird is an underground light rail transit (LRT) station under construction on Line 5 Eglinton, a new line that is part of the Toronto subway system.[2] It is located in the Leaside neighbourhood in East York at the intersection of Laird Drive and Eglinton Avenue. It is scheduled to open in 2024.[1]

Laird
Laird station main entrance under construction in May 2022
General information
LocationEglinton Avenue & Laird Drive
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Coordinates43°42′48″N 79°21′54″W
PlatformsCentre platform
Tracks2
Connections TTC buses
Construction
Structure typeUnderground
AccessibleYes
Other information
StatusUnder construction
History
Opening2024 (2024)[1]
Services
Preceding station Toronto Transit Commission Following station
Leaside
towards Mount Dennis
 Eglinton
(opens 2024)
 Sunnybrook Park
towards Kennedy

This station's entrances are both on the south side of Eglinton. The main entrance is at the southwest corner of the Laird Drive intersection replacing a small strip mall and the secondary one is east of that in the Leaside Centre parking lot, just beyond the Pier 1 Imports store.[3]

On the east side of the station, there is a third track between the eastbound and westbound tracks, either to store a train or to allow a train to change direction due to an emergency or a change in service. On the west side of the station, there is a diamond crossover.[4][5] Laird station is the easternmost underground station in the main tunnel; the line will emerge onto Eglinton about 250 metres (820 ft) east of Brentcliffe Drive and change to predominantly on-street operation in a dedicated right-of-way in the centre of the street east to Kennedy station.

Photo of a glass panelled subway station entrance
Laird station Secondary entrance under construction in May 2022

Destinations include the many commercial establishments to the southeast: Leaside Centre, the SmartCentres on Laird, and the Leaside Business Park on Eglinton.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne officiated at the ground-breaking for the station on June 30, 2016.[6]

Construction

As of December 2021, the underground portion of the station is structurally complete[7] and was constructed by "mining", a technique more formally called sequential excavation method (SEM). Laird, Avenue and Oakwood stations were all constructed by this method, while the other underground Line 5 stations were built by cut-and-cover. According to Crosslinx, SEM is more common in Europe and the Crosstown is the first project to use the technique in Toronto.[8]

The station's mined cavern is 489 metres (1,604 ft) long because it contains a crossover and a storage track in addition to the train platforms. Both the station platforms and the adjacent switching track assemblies are contained within a single circular tube, and there are no support columns between the tracks. Using cut-and-cover would have disrupted approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) of Eglinton Avenue.[8]

At Laird, two shafts were built on the south side of Eglinton Avenue on both the east and west sides of Laird Drive. From the vertical shafts, workers mined horizontally towards and above the twin tunnels created by the tunnel boring machines. Large pipe-like sections are used to support the roof of the excavation. Then, workers gradually excavated down to the liners of the twin tunnels, which were removed. When the excavation was finished, there was a multi-storey cavern with an arched ceiling, which provides enough strength to support the ground above. The tunnel walls were sprayed with shotcrete, a special concrete that cures in ten minutes. Excavation was done slowly, about 1.5 metres per day; mining work proceeded on a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week basis using two crews of ten workers each.

Surface connections
Main article: List of Toronto Transit Commission bus routes

As of February 2022, the following are the proposed connecting routes that would serve this station when Line 5 Eglinton opens:[9]

Route Name Additional information
34 Eglinton Westbound to Mount Dennis station and eastbound to Kennedy station
51 Leslie Northbound to Steeles Avenue via Leslie station and southbound to Donlands station
88 South Leaside Westbound to St. Clair station

References
  1. Spurr, Ben (February 17, 2020). "Eglinton Crosstown faces another setback, delayed until 2022 | The Star". Toronto Star. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  2. "Laird Station". Eglinton Crosstown. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  3. "Laird LRT stop will replace long-time Bagel maker". The South Bayview Bulldog. November 20, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2017. The main entrance will be built on the site of the strip mall on the southwest corner. Across Laird to the east, a second entrance will be built on the parking lot of the RioCan-owned Laird Centre on the southeast corner.
  4. "Vehicle Ride: Laird Station to EMSF". Metrolinx. November 30, 2021. p. 0:25.
  5. "Eglinton Crosstown LRT Updates – July 2017". Metrolinx. July 14, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  6. "Ontario Breaks Ground on Laird Station on Eglinton Crosstown LRT". Government of Ontario. June 30, 2016. Retrieved June 30, 2016. Work is beginning on Laird Station, located near the midpoint of the 19-kilometre Light Rail Transit (LRT) line. Construction began in March on Keelesdale, the first underground station. By the end of the summer, more than half of the underground stations on the 25-station line will be under construction.
  7. "Crosstown's Laird Station sees all structural work on the cavern completed–Take a look inside". Metrolinx. February 22, 2021. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
  8. Spurr, Ben (April 29, 2018). "Underground Eglinton Crosstown LRT stations take shape with unique mining technique". Toronto Star. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  9. "2022 Annual Service Plan" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. February 10, 2022. p. 37. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 8, 2022.
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